When Donald Trump agreed to attend a dinner with the largest investors in his own-brand cryptocurrency, he transformed the TRUMP coin into something else entirely: a means of access to the sitting president. As a consequence, Trump could find himself at odds with constitutional prohibitions of bribery and corruption, experts claim.
Trump’s dinner announcement on April 23 instigated a trading frenzy that, on paper, added hundreds of millions of dollars to his net worth. Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization, a conglomerate owned by the president, control 80 percent of the total supply of the coin, which shot up in price by almost 60 percent after the announcement. Those subsidiaries also profit from any surge in trading volume as rent-seeking intermediaries.
However, the dinner maneuver may have political consequences for Trump. In creating the opportunity for anybody with sufficient wealth to purchase an audience, Trump risks falling foul of a part of the US Constitution—the emoluments clauses—that prohibit the president from accepting gifts or financial compensation from foreign and domestic state actors. In a worst-case scenario for the president, the potential for negative optics could add fuel to calls for his impeachment.
“Trump has built an entire life prodding the border of what a powerful person can get away with,” claims Jeff Hauser, executive director at the Revolving Door Project, an organization that seeks to scrutinize the behavior of elected officials. “But at some point in time, he could push a little too far and it comes back on him. This [dinner] has the possibility of being that.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced his coin on January 18, a few days prior to his inauguration. At the time, he pitched it as a memecoin, a type of asset whose only purpose is to enable financial speculation. The price of memecoins tends to whipsaw dramatically with swings in public sentiment toward the person, meme, or concept they are based upon.
The dinner gambit puts the TRUMP coin in a different class entirely. In establishing an explicit quid pro quo—a large investment in exchange for an audience—the maneuver has effectively turned TRUMP into a utility coin, an asset that bestows on holders some perk or advantage.
That change was immediately felt in the markets, when the price of TRUMP surged in the hour after the dinner was announced. The expectation of further opportunities to spend time with Trump may continue to prop up the price.
“The door to utility has been opened. The market will expect further utility to come from holding that coin,” says Nathan van der Heyden, head of business development at crypto company Aragon. “Before, you were speculating on a TRUMP coin with no utility. Now you’re speculating on future access to Trump. That has to be worth a bit more money.”
The act of transmuting his cryptocurrency into a utility coin is unlikely to have immediate regulatory implications for Trump. In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the financial regulator that policed the crypto industry most tightly under the Biden administration, made clear that it does not consider memecoins to fall within its jurisdiction. Likewise, during Trump’s first term, the agency reached a similar conclusion about utility coins.
“Whether it’s a utility token or a memecoin, it’s not regulated by the SEC,” says Lisa Bragança, attorney at Bragança Law and former branch chief at the SEC. Therefore, to avoid the attention of regulators, Trump need only refrain from fraud and unfair trade practices, she says.
However, experts wonder whether it could have legal implications. Though critics have argued from the beginning that TRUMP could create a pathway for bribery—by investing large sums into the coin, driving up its price, politically motivated actors could theoretically curry favor with the president—the dinner brings the risk of violating emoluments restrictions into stark relief.
“If the government of Yemen buys up oodles of memecoins, we won’t know,” says Bragança. “If it’s a utility coin and, say, a representative of Russia shows up for dinner with the president, we know it’s an emoluments issue.”
Today, access to the sitting US president carries a greater potential political currency than ever. “Trump is amalgamating even more power in the executive branch than anyone has before,” claims Hauser. “With ever greater power comes a larger warehouse of favors that can be sold.”
At present, the names of the TRUMP holders set to win a place at the dinner are concealed behind pseudonyms and alphanumeric crypto wallet addresses. The White House did not respond when asked whether the attendee list will be made public.
Whether Trump would face any consequences for theoretically violating foreign emoluments laws depends on the strength of his grip on Congress, the political class tasked with upholding the Constitution, including through impeachment.
In the halls of Congress, calls for Trump’s impeachment are already growing. “He is granting audiences to people who buy the memecoin that directly enriches him,” said Democrat senator Jon Ossoff in a town hall meeting on April 25. “There is no doubt that this president’s conduct has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment.”
For now, the Republican congressional majority and Trump’s command of his party mean impeachment calls are unlikely to go anywhere. Equally, Trump has previously prevailed in multiple lawsuits alleging that he violated emoluments clauses during his first time in connection with his hotel business, which were later dismissed.
“The violation of the Constitution should be a big deal, but how to make it consequential is challenging,” says Hauser. “Right now, Trump rules the Republican party with such an iron hand that the notion of a successful impeachment leading to a guilty verdict is just somewhat fanciful.”
However, in its potential to paint Trump in an unflattering light—as a president who puts his own financial interests over those of the nation—the TRUMP coin dinner could contribute to shifting the dial. With the midterm elections only a year away and the Republican House majority only slim, public perception matters.
“The opportunity for corruption is not meaningfully changed by the dinner. But the optics are potentially much worse for Trump,” says Hauser. “The unseemliness changes the odds of there being any ramifications to Trump violating the emoluments clause. It creates more vulnerability.”
